Then the child lifts her hand and presses her tiny palm against Scarlet’s cheek.
Scarlet stills.
For a moment, she remains completely still. Her eyes become distant and unfocused, as if she is listening to something only she can perceive.
She exhales shakily. “She’s… she’s scared,” Scarlet murmurs. “For your mate. I can feel it. She’s unhurt. Just… far away.”
I look up sharply.
Scarlet blinks, appearing to regain her composure, and frowns as if she’s confused about what occurred. “Ahya,” she says quietly. “When she touches me… I feel things. Feel what she feels. Like she’s showing me emotions that aren’t hers. Like pictures drawn inside my head.”
“Aura saw those same pictures of her daughter. That’s why we came to find you.”
Scarlet nods and gently kisses Ahya’s cheek. “We’re so grateful you did. Ahya… she knows her biological mother in a way that’s unusual for a child so young.”
“They have some kind of magical connection?”
“I think so.”
Robert, in his mahogany brown bear form, growls at a specific spot. The other shifters spread out around the small hollow, turning and retracing their steps in a coordinated manner.
There is no continuation of the trail, no evidence of a struggle, no dragged body, and no second set of tracks leading away.
Only absence remains.
Robert shifts back into his human form, fur receding to reveal tan skin as his posture straightens. He shakes his head. “She was here, but that’s where the trail ends. Her scent disappears.”
He shakes his head, unable to explain it, but we understand. I stare into the sky. She ascended, and her scent was carried away by the wind.
Ronyn does the same, his nostrils flaring. “She didn’t leave on foot.”
Hunter circles wider, sniffing the air. “No wolf scent either. No bear. Nothing.”
Kelan steps forward and crouches where her trail ends. He doesn’t speak at first. He presses his palm into the dirt and closes his eyes.
Hunter exhales slowly. “You’re saying—”
“Yes,” I say quietly. “A dragon.”
The forest seems to close in around us. Ronyn emits a low, wounded growl.
“Another dragon touched our mate?”
The air grows heavy with heat.
Scarlet holds Ahya more tightly, instinctively stepping back as our dragons stir beneath our skin.
Kelan stands to his full height, wings flickering into partial existence behind him like shadows forming. “The magic surge. We weren’t alone in this forest.”
I close my eyes for a moment.
I try to reach for our mate.
It is now instinct to search for the thread that connects us, the quiet hum that exists whenever she is near.
But now?
Silence.
